The present invention relates in general to evaporative fuel recovery systems, and, more specifically, to a mounting system for a vapor blocking valve.
Onboard Refueling Vapor Recovery (ORVR) is a vehicle emission control system that captures fuel vapors from the vehicle fuel tank during refueling. The tank and fill pipe are designed so that when refueling the vehicle, fuel vapors in the tank travel to an activated carbon canister which adsorbs the vapor. When the engine is in operation, it draws the gasoline vapors into the engine intake manifold to be burned.
Vapor lines (i.e., conduits) are used to convey fuel vapor between the fuel tank, carbon canister, engine, and various in-line valves that control the vapor flow. One such valve is the vapor blocking valve (VBV) which is typically a discrete component mounted to the vehicle frame between the fuel tank and the carbon canister. A plastic-molded mounting bracket is typically used with a clip on one side for holding the VBV and attachment pins on the other side for inserting into corresponding holes in a sheet metal support panel of the frame. The bracket and mounting holes in the sheet metal are configured according to a design layout of the vapor system within the vehicle. For example, clamp arms hold the VBV at a particular orientation to align it with the vapor lines to which it attaches.
The development of a design for each new vehicle model involves an iterative engineering process. Preliminary designs are used to create prototype vehicles for testing and evaluation purposes. Based on these results, the designs may be modified. For example, vehicle performance during crash safety testing may dictate repositioning of ORVR components. In order to accommodate a new orientation of the VBV, the bracket and/or the placement of mounting holes in the vehicle frame sheet metal would have to be redesigned. Development of a new design for the mounting system results in added development time and associated costs. It would be desirable to minimize such re-development time and cost and to provide flexibility and reusability in mounting system design and development.